Associate Director, Economic Mobility Catalog

Organization: Results for America

Role: Associate Director, Economic Mobility Catalog

Location: Flexible, within the United States (greater NYC metro area preferred)

Organization Overview

Results for America (RFA) is the leading, national nonprofit organization helping policymakers at all levels of government harness the power of evidence and data to solve the world’s greatest challenges. Our mission is to make investing in what works the “new normal,” so that, one day, all government leaders use rigorous evidence and quality data to inform important policy and funding decisions. We believe that data-driven and evidence-based policy decisions should be used to increase the impact of the over $2 trillion that governments spend annually to open opportunities and advance economic mobility. 

Department Overview

The Solutions department at RFA, composed of the Economic Mobility Catalog and Solutions Accelerator teams, helps government decision makers learn about and replicate solutions that have worked in communities elsewhere.  The Solutions department is responsible for: 1) identifying and highlighting successful implementation efforts of evidence-based solutions by local governments across the country through research, writing, and public goods dissemination, and 2) supporting cities and counties with the implementation of evidence-based solutions through short- and long-term cohort learning opportunities. Working through partnerships and in response to local government needs, the Solutions department aims to accelerate progress on key economic mobility outcomes through the continued growth and evolution of the Economic Mobility Catalog and the suite of solutions replication support models developed by RFA.

Position Overview

The Economic Mobility Catalog is a dynamic, web-based resource designed to help local government leaders identify and implement strategies proven to increase upward economic mobility. The Catalog, launched in January 2021, currently contains over 50 strategy guides, nearly 200 program briefs, and over 50 case studies, with content consistently being added to the website. In addition, in partnership with a major national funder, RFA is currently engaged in a large-scale, multi-year effort to improve the quality and delivery of public goods and resources that enable local leaders to advance economic mobility in their communities, through which we expect to significantly increase the awareness and use of the Catalog by local government decision-makers.  

The Associate Director, Economic Mobility Catalog will lead the Catalog team’s direct engagements with local jurisdictions across the country to meet ambitious growth goals for the Catalog and contribute to the continued expansion of the Catalog’s content. This role requires wide-ranging economic mobility subject-matter expertise; exceptional relationship-building skills; demonstrated research, writing, and public speaking ability; experience designing and delivering presentations; and project management acumen. Previous experience working in local government is strongly preferred.

Travel up to 20% annually may be required.

This is a full time, exempt position, based in a home office anywhere within the U.S., with a preference for candidates located in the greater New York City metropolitan area.

Position Reporting Relationship

The Associate Director, Economic Mobility Catalog will report to the Director, Economic Mobility Catalog.

Position Responsibilities

The Associate Director, Economic Mobility Catalog, will have two major areas of responsibility: 1) engaging local leaders across the country to build awareness and drive adoption of the Catalog; and 2) contributing significantly to new Catalog content by leading the development of new material and serving as an advisor to more junior staff members through their research and writing processes.

This will consist of building relationships with local leaders across the country, creating and delivering customized presentations for these leaders and their teams, collecting user feedback on the Catalog resource, and synthesizing findings into actionable insights to advance organizational and team goals. Producing new content will require conducting research and interviews, writing original content, and serving as a thought partner and editor for other Catalog team members. 

The Associate Director will also collaborate closely with teams across RFA, including the Impact team, the Communications team, and other locally-focused program teams.

Local leader engagement (40%)

With supervisory support from the Director, lead the Catalog team’s direct engagements with local leaders in specific jurisdictions across the country:

• Design and manage a national strategy for local jurisdictional outreach and engagement for the Catalog that reflects RFA’s priority jurisdictions and meet ambitious outreach targets in service of increasing the Catalog’s rates of awareness and adoption; 
• Source local jurisdictions to receive Catalog presentations, inclusive of identifying and working with key local leaders who can ultimately serve as points of contact for Catalog engagements; 
• Lead processes to collect data and feedback from local leaders to better understand jurisdiction-specific needs and use this information to inform presentations and other engagements;
• Design tailored presentations for each jurisdiction-specific engagement, with customized components drawing from jurisdictional data and feedback and other resources where appropriate (e.g., Opportunity Insights’ Opportunity Atlas or the Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Framework);
• Deliver presentations to local jurisdictions in partnership with the Director, document attendees, and work with each jurisdiction to solicit follow up qualitative feedback (inclusive of administering immediate post-presentation survey via Qualtrics);
• Manage the collection of all forms of quantitative and qualitative feedback to inform continuous improvement of the Catalog product;
• Track progress towards goals to increase awareness and adoption and collaborate with RFA’s impact team and Catalog team members to prepare and share findings with other RFA teams, RFA leadership, and other relevant parties on Catalog engagement outcomes and learnings;
• Maintain contact and engagement records for all local leaders who have engaged directly with the Catalog, taking ownership of documenting these activities in Salesforce in a timely manner to ensure organization-wide transparency;
• On a project basis, supervise as necessary Program Assistant, Associate, Manager, and/or Senior Manager-level level team members who are contributing to local leader engagement efforts.

Catalog content development (40%)

With light supervisory support from the Director:

• Manage the Catalog team’s strategy page expansion process through:
  • Setting and managing work plans for sequenced strategy page development and maintenance;
  • Identifying and interviewing expert panelists;
  • Writing and editing drafts;
  • Engaging stakeholders for feedback; 
  • Supervising other team members’ contributions to the strategy page expansion process, serving as advisor, thought partner, and editor; 
  • Executing on all necessary activities leading up to publication for strategy pages, including coordination with Communications team;
• Serve as lead researcher and writer for a set number of Catalog case studies and other content, like blog posts;
• In close collaboration with the Director, shape initial direction of potential new public goods and play a lead role in their development as appropriate;
• Contribute to the development of feedback- and data-driven recommendations for new content or new types of public goods for RFA and RFA’s partners.

Team and organization-wide support (20%)

• Prepare and deliver presentations of the Catalog at larger format events, like webinars, in-person conferences, convenings, and assist as needed in the execution of these events; 

• Manage projects and workflow using team-wide project management tools (e.g., Asana);
• Contribute to all department- and team-wide goal setting processes; 
• Engage with teams across RFA to ensure the Catalog is contributing to the broader goals of the organization;
• Manage and contribute relevant information to organization-wide Salesforce platform;
• Manage vendors for the Catalog’s website as needed;
• Make website revisions in the Catalog’s Content Management System as needed;
• Assist in supervising Program Assistant, Associate, Manager, and/or Senior Manager-level team members on a project basis, including contributing to the hiring and managing of interns for the Solutions department; 
• As needed and appropriate, potential to serve as the supervisor on record for a full-time employee;
• Provide administrative support as needed and appropriate for broader organization functions.

Experience, Competencies, and Qualifications 

The ideal candidate will have the following qualifications, as well as an alignment with Results for America’s mission and organizational values:

• 10+ years of relevant work experience and Bachelors degree
• Work experience in government (federal, state, and/or county/city) or a history of deep collaboration with government leaders preferred
• Experience supervising at least one FTE
• Demonstrated track record of successful project completion
• Experience setting and driving toward accomplishment of multiple team goals
• Demonstrated track record of successfully managing cross-team initiatives
• A commitment to Results for America’s mission and vision 
• Respect for Results for America’s organizational values
• Experience successfully developing and managing relationships with a diverse set of stakeholders and decision-makers
• Demonstrated interest in improving upward economic mobility for individuals and communities.

The ideal candidate for this position will have: 

• The ability to relate to local government leaders and their needs, with a practical understanding of how business gets done in the local government space (ideally from firsthand experience);
• Excellent project and workflow management skills, individually and for a team, with demonstrated ability to effectively manage complex projects and multiple workstreams;
• Exceptional presentation skills, with the ability to connect with audiences and relay complex information with a high degree of both confidence and approachability;
• Excellent writing ability, with a demonstrated track record of distilling large amounts of information into clear, organized, and accessible language;
• Strong relationship building skills, with a demonstrated track record of building trust with external stakeholders quickly and leveraging those relationships to generate results;
• A strong work ethic and solid organizational skills, including attention to detail, and time management;
• Strong knowledge and perspectives of the economic mobility landscape and its various policy levers; 

The ideal candidate will be:

• A highly skilled researcher, editor, and interviewer; 
• A fast learner, with the ability to grasp new ideas and process high volumes of new information quickly;
• A creative problem solver with the ability to anticipate challenges and proactively pursue opportunities; and
• A straightforward communicator, approaching our work with humility, a high degree of intellectual curiosity, and the ability to give and receive compassionate and constructive feedback.

Salary and Benefits

Results for America offers a compensation package that includes:   

• A competitive base salary commensurate with relevant work experience; and
• A benefits package that includes choice in medical plans; dental/vision coverage; paid time off; a 403b retirement plan with employer contribution.  

The salary range for this position is $114,365- $147,041.

New hires are typically brought into the organization at a salary between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint depending on qualifications, internal equity, and the budgeted amount for the role.   

How to Apply

To apply for this position, please complete and submit all information in the Greenhouse application: https://grnh.se/e4653a587us

RFA is an equal opportunity employer that values/celebrates diversity and that follows a policy of making all employment decisions and personnel actions without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, partnership status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, family responsibilities, matriculation, political affiliation, disability, status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual offenses or stalking, military status, veteran status or any other category protected under federal, state or local law.

Applicants for employment with RFA must have valid work authorization that does not require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the U.S.